This case details the journey of Chengdu Zhiyuanhui Information Technology Co., Ltd. (referred to as "Zhiyuanhui") in pioneering digital innovations within public transport since its inception in 2010. From the start, Zhiyuanhui resolutely adopted a strategy combining digital technology innovation with scenario-based applications. By continually refining these integrations, Zhiyuanhui introduced first-of-their-kind products to the world. These included the "Smart Screen," "QR Code Riding," "Facial Recognition Riding," and "Masked Facial Recognition Riding," providing an ever-evolving comprehensive smart transit management service system in settings such as subways. In 2020, Zhiyuanhui ventured into smart city construction, bringing achievements as well as new competitive challenges and market conditions. By February 2022, it had become imperative for Deng Bo to reevaluate Zhiyuanhui's long-held development strategies. How could they refine their smart city model of "digital technology + scenario operations" within the smart transportation domain? Moreover, what strategic priority should have been assigned to digital technology versus scenario operations?
This case delves into the journey of Bosch (China) Investment Co., Ltd. (hereinafter "Bosch China") as it looked to establish a coaching culture across three distinct phases: "initiation, development, and one step further". It presents the background, challenges, reflections, and strategies entailed in this pursuit while exploring the way forward for its coaching culture as Bosch China approached the fifth anniversary of its Coach Club. In mid-2016, Bosch China introduced the "Coaching Practice of Leadership" course to facilitate its transition from traditional manufacturer to IoT-oriented tech firm while nurturing the required talents. However, the initiative met skepticism from executives right from inception. Through partnerships with external coaches, engagement of internal business executives, and operations of the coach club, Bosch China managed to get more and more employees to embrace the concept of "coaching". As the company continued its journey, industry changes and pandemic disruptions posed substantial challenges, prompting Bosch Group to scale back China investments. Faced with slashed training budgets, Bosch China internalized coaching courses. It introduced team coaching to extend the reach of coaching leadership to a broader group of mid-level managers and business divisions. While the coaching culture took shape, the company made several trade-offs, exemplified in sections like "local identity vs. global alignment", "independence vs. ICF accreditation", and "taking proactive action vs. responding to needs". After five years of exploration, Bosch China's efforts to foster a coaching culture yielded tangible outcomes. Internally, this practice garnered recognition from executives like Han Dongli, Vice President of Bosch Intelligent Manufacturing Solutions China, and contributed to business growth in the divisions concerned. Externally, it earned accolades like the Ram Charan Management Practice Award and the ICF Germany Prism Award.
This case is designed to help students understand how to manage diverse employees with unique strengths and weaknesses. It features the Dialogue in the Dark ("DiD") China organization, a social enterprise franchise that employs visually impaired people to guide visitors as they experience daily life tasks in pitch-black. After briefly introducing DiD's origins in Germany and DiD China's founding story, this case describes how its founder, Shiyin Cai, managed the organization with an emphasis on selecting the right employees, providing training for their personal development, and giving employees opportunities to build self-confidence. Furthermore, this case explores how Cai considers the diverse perspectives of her employees and establishes personal relationships with them to develop enabling conditions that can help them thrive in both this organization and society at large. On December 16, 2021, the tenth anniversary of DiD China, Cai reflected on her past experiences. A month prior, had falsely reported to authorities that DiD Shanghai's operation was in violation of the fire code, an accusation that intensified the existing financial struggles caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Through the ups and downs, Cai reflected on the challenges and rewards she experienced with founding DiD China. More importantly, on a personal level, she acknowledged her ongoing journey of learning and growth as a leader.
This case begins with an overview of China's healthcare system, followed by an introduction to the country's hospitals' pursuit of digital transformation and a profile of Ruijin Hospital. The case then focuses on how Ruijin Hospital laid out a vision for the digital hospital and translated it into strategic goals that addressed the needs and concerns of multiple stakeholders. It covers how the hospital explored technology solutions for smart services, healthcare, and management to drive its smart transformation. Ruijin Hospital Affiliated to the School of Medicine, Shanghai Jiao Tong University inaugurated the Shanghai Digital Medicine Innovation Center (hereinafter "Innovation Center") on October 27, 2021. The Shanghai Municipal People's Government expected Ruijin Hospital to lead the way in setting national standards and benchmarks for digital transformation in healthcare. At the inauguration ceremony, Ning Guang, the director of Ruijin Hospital, addressed the guests as head of the Innovation Center. He noted that the Innovation Center would play a pivotal role in spearheading the digitization of healthcare, exemplifying smart hospital practices, and extending them to other medical institutions. Ruijin Hospital needed to leverage internal and external resources to help the entire healthcare industry go digital as it moved forward with its smart transformation. However, achieving these dual objectives would prove to be a formidable task. Internally, it had a long way to go to apply its new technologies and digital solutions across the healthcare industry. Externally, the varying levels of informatization and smart technology application across medical institutions hindered the seamless integration and sharing of medical data. To complicate matters further, digitization in healthcare also varied from region to region. Ruijin Hospital faced challenges in extending its standards for digital transformation to other institutions. In this context, how would Ruijin
This case depicts the critical decisions Xingli Dong (Shirley) made during her career transition from a female Ph. D. in engineering to Energy Automation R&D VP of Schneider Electric and sparks a discussion on her next key decision for a career change. In this male-dominated field, she met a barrage of suspicion and setbacks during her growth from a female Ph. D. in engineering to the head of the R&D Center, especially in carrying out an eight-year-long project. Shirley insisted on leading the team with open-mindedness and inclusiveness, making rapid and incremental iterations through trial and error. The successful project delivery earned her the trust of the headquarters and an opportunity to lead the company's global R&D business. The new position, however, required her to balance work and family and manage a global R&D team while working in China. With authentic leadership, she won the trust and recognition of her 300-strong cross-cultural R&D team; with empathy, she managed to close down a site in Poland. Inspired by other excellent female leaders, she continuously reflected on female executives' unique strengths. In October 2021, Schneider Electric organized a 360 Leadership Assessment for senior executives, during which Shirley realized her weaknesses in strategic thinking would put her in a weaker position to exercise leadership in the long run. Shirley began to consider whether she should leverage her existing strengths in her existing role or venture out of her comfort zone to seek new opportunities. However, she had doubts about whether Schneider Electric would support her pivot into an innovation-related role, where she had no particular advantage.
This case describes the challenges faced by Thoughtworks China (hereinafter ""Thoughtworks"") and Yuelong Automobile (hereinafter ""Yuelong"") while working together on the development of a digital tool for Yuelong car owners: What did they aim to achieve through innovation-beat the competition or meet consumer needs? Was this digital transformation project beyond the purview of Yuelong's New Retail Department, with General Manager Wang Jie championing it directly? Was market research needed to explore innovation opportunities? Should they consider all users' pain points and needs or focus solely on key issues? What issues should be prioritized-high-value or high-risk ones? Should the company adapt to market change after the launch of Minimum Viable Products (MVPs)? Which department should manage this innovative digital product? How should they transcend temporal and spatial boundaries to replicate such an innovation product?Clues can be found in Thoughtworks' agile innovation process. As described in the case, only one month after release, the app co-developed by Thoughtworks and Yuelong, the result of intense debate between the pair, was well-received by the market. In January 2021, Zhang Min, Chairperson of Tengfei Group, Yuelong's parent company, invited Wang Jie, Yuelong's General Manager, Li Chuang, Yuelong's Director of New Retail Department, and Zhao Xin, Thoughtworks' Chief Project Manager, to discuss how to replicate the app's development process and apply it to other Tengfei subsidiaries. While the digital age continuously demanded innovation from carmakers, Zhao knew these subsidiaries needed to understand their market position and priorities before introducing new tools rather than simply following the latest digital trends. This case may spark further discussions about the difficulties with product innovation, helping students understand the characteristics and applications of Thoughtworks' agile innovation methodology.
This case introduces Schneider Electric's 15-year-long exploration of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI), aimed at providing "equal opportunities to everyone everywhere and to ensure all employees feel uniquely valued and safe to contribute their best." Through various approaches to initiate DEI, Schneider Electric has seen a shift from employees questioning DEI to accepting it and asking how to implement it. This case ends with a tough decision for Charise Le, Chief Human Resources Officer (CHRO) at Schneider Electric. As a Chinese woman leader, Charise appreciated the Group's DEI strategy and culture, allowing her to assume a global role in mainland China. Early in 2022, she had to make her own choice and lead the recruiting panel on a final decision between two candidates (John Carney and Lucy Chiang) for a country president position at Schneider Electric. Both John and Lucy were outstanding from a business perspective. Lucy's expertise seemed to meet the business strategy needs better, but she had issues with managing people. Comparatively, John had a weaker impact on leading newly formed decarbonization initiatives but acted as a more inclusive leader who enjoyed wide acceptance among all his prior subordinates. This decision kept Charise up at night. Appointing Lucy will make the Group's country presidents more diversified but Charise worries whether it is a "fair play" to John. That is, does focusing on diversity lead to sacrificing "equity" in this case? How should Charise and the recruiting panel practice the Group's DEI principles in this decision?
The case illustrates Zhu Jing's entrepreneurial story from three stages: aspiration, action, and determination. The case presents the challenges that Zhu Jing faces as a female entrepreneur in the real estate industry and how she addressed them. At the beginning of 2022, Zhu convened key executives to recap on business operations of the past year. They needed to discuss and decide the rewards and punishment for executives. Zhu gave up a comfortable life out of a love for architecture and art and founded Sunkwan Group in Shanghai in 2010. The real estate industry is male-dominated. Resource acquisition is a huge challenge for female entrepreneurs as the sector is typically resource-driven. Enthusiasm and passion are the genuine motivation for Zhu to persist in the industry. With her keen business sense, she quickly identified business opportunities and made Yueshan project a successful case. The case laid an essential foundation for the expansion of the company nationwide. She always focuses on improving product capabilities to win fair returns from the market and simultaneously makes up for weak resources and capabilities with cooperation. Empathy, trust, empowerment, and other features of Zhu's leadership and the company's business philosophy give birth to a united executive team. China's real estate industry has experienced dramatic changes since June 2021. With shrinking market demand, increasingly stringent regulatory policies, blocked financing channels and sluggish property sales, and frequent outbreaks of epidemics across the country, many real estate companies spiraled into a crisis. In June 2021, Sunkwan re-designed a reward and punishment system for all executive members to overcome these challenges and motivate the team for better performance. The 2021 performance, however, fell short of expectations and Zhu hesitated on whether to punish executives according to the rules or administer a light punishment. The decision mirrors Zhu's traits and leadership
This case illustrates the founding philosophy and continuous improvement of Spark Education Limited ("Spark Education") and analyzes challenges in the online education industry. Since its inception, Spark Education has been committed to reshaping foundational learning and promoting education equality. Powered by technology and innovation, Spark Education delivered online small classes and AI courses. Based on the operating model of "courses + teaching + service," rounds of innovation and exploration have been conducted. After three years of development, Spark Education has grown into China's largest small-class online platform in mathematics thinking education. However, this young startup's pursuit for further excellence became a big question after the Chinese government introduced the "Double Reduction" policy in July 2021. Affected by this policy, many capital-fueled online and offline education companies, including Spark Education, have been hit hard. The "Double Reduction" policy wrecked Spark Education's IPO plans (the company had submitted its application in the US two months earlier) and imposed significant uncertainty on its future. These market players are in dire need of a way out of the crisis. Looking ahead, Spark Education needs to re-examine its business model and core strengths or build a second growth curve. In August 2021, Spark Education held an executive meeting on its transformation and future business direction. First, Spark Education has to review the value of its online education model, especially the small-class-based adaptive learning model. Second, can Spark Education follow Outschool's model of providing small online classes that were well-received in the US? And if so, what should Spark Education teach? The final question throws it back to the nature of education-What should Spark Education do to provide considerate education services and ensure students enjoy adaptive learning featuring technological innovation? How can children's
This case traces the digital transformation exploration of NOVA VISION (also called "Baodao Glasses"), as the leading Chinese service-oriented eyewear retailer sought continuous improvement. The company developed informatization construction in its early stage. In the internet era, it started an online business and tried the O2O (online to offline) model in 2013. In 2019, it launched a methodology for private domain traffic operations and implemented drastic organizational changes. They followed its strategic positioning of "professionalism + digitalization" and operational goal for transforming the traditional "store operation-centered" sales model into "member operations as the core" service-oriented retail model. However, NOVA VISION's digital initiatives were not recognized by peers for many years, nor have they solved the industry's essential pain points, such as the high proportional personnel costs and the steadily rising store rents. NOVA VISION still faces internal and external challenges. The extremal challenges include threats from upstream players in the industry chain of lens and glass frame brand giants as well as competition from eye hospitals that enter the optician industry. Internal challenges come from its employees, who may be full of confusion and uncertainty about the future. It is crucial that NOVA VISION better implements the "professionalism + digitalization" strategy and ensures organizational changes bring effective outcomes. Wang Zhimin, chairman of the board of directors, still has a strong idea for exporting the company's own experience and upgrading the industry through platformization, which is full of unknowns. Will future generations still need glasses? What kind of glasses will they need? The future of eyewear service retail is blurry... NOVA VISION's related exploration reflects several important issues in the development of China's optical retail industry, such as "healthcare vs. fashion" needs, "online vs. offline" scenarios,
This case describes Shentong Metro Group's ("Shentong Metro Group" or "the Group") strategic transformation ("Three Transformations"), focusing on its transit-oriented development (TOD) between 2009 and 2020. As the world's most extensive urban metro system ("Metro"), its strategic transformation grew from the strategic intent to contribute to Shanghai's vision of improving residents' quality of life while ensuring the Group's sustainable development. The Group successfully planned and implemented its TOD initiative, completing three projects between 2012 and 2019. However, as a Chinese state-owned enterprise (SOE), the Group faced multiple challenges. First, conceptualizing and implementing the TOD initiative was not easy as Shentong Metro Group has to meet various social, financial, and operational goals. These goals were often vaguely defined (e.g., more environment friendly), while others were incompatible or even contradictory (e.g., increase employment while reducing costs). Second, the Group's core capabilities were in engineering, construction, and operational management of the Metro system. It lacked real estate development and management capabilities that were fundamental to the initiative. Third, the institutional environment and policies relating to TOD in Shanghai were underdeveloped and continually evolving. While the past TOD projects had, to some extent, overcome these challenges, the Group still faces many more ahead of future TOD projects. Some important questions include: What lessons could be gleaned from previous TOD projects? How should the Group fine-tune future TOD initiatives to realize the "Three Transformations?" How could it seize new opportunities based on Shanghai's urban development master plan?
This case traces the development of Canyou Group over 22 years, starting from its origins as a small computer interest club in 1997 to an organization consisting of a foundation, 14 non-for-profit firms, and 42 for-profit companies, two of which are listed. As Canyou developed, the mission of the founder, Weining Zheng, remained crucial to decision-making. He wanted to prove the worth of disabled persons by showing that they can create value and gain approval from the market. Canyou faced three critical strategic decisions during its formation, which were key to determining this social enterprise's development. By making decisions in line with its mission, Canyou showed how it evolved to find success utilizing disabled employees to create value for the firm. In understanding Canyou's success, the firm has built complementary assets focused on its employees. Specifically, it developed a unique human resource system that captures the needs of employees and a corporate culture that supports them. Moreover, it designed a supporting structure with its "Three-in-One" model to help Canyou support the disabled while generating profits and contributing to its mission, resulting in a virtuous cycle. This case provides an opportunity to analyze Canyou's decisions during its development. Specifically, the case allows students to consider both the external and internal activities that a firm with this unique mission should explore and, more importantly, what activities it should reject. After discussing these decisions, the case provides an opportunity to analyze how the mission created complementary assets geared towards disabled employees, leading to a source of sustained competitive advantage. Finally, this case discusses Canyou's future challenges. While the case protagonist Weining Zheng understood that Canyou had a solid foundation, he needed to consider how it could build on disabled people's value while increasing its success after he left the firm (and this world).
This case delineates how Fotile Group (hereinafter "Fotile") continuously upgraded its vision, mission and broader cultural system in its pursuit of becoming a "great company" and "delivering happiness to millions of families." Since its establishment in 1996, Fotile has attached great importance to corporate culture and invested substantial efforts to develop and transform its culture. Having gone through four main stages of exploration and development, Fotile devised a unique cultural system combining traditional Chinese culture with Western management theories. Since then, Fotile's unique culture has guided internal management. An employee management system promoted benevolence by providing love and care while assisting staff in finding material and spiritual fulfillment. In addition, Fotile's broadly-held consensus that "Culture is business" instructed the product development team to prioritize customers' happiness over profits and convey the firm's values via innovative and user-friendly products.
This case demonstrates how, through trial and error, Qingdao Kutesmart Co., Ltd. ("Kutesmart," formerly known as Qingdao Red Collar Group Co., Ltd.) executed its strategy of "building a customer-to-manufactory (C2M) business ecosystem," following transformation from mass production to mass customization. In 2015, Kutesmart launched Magic Manufactory to explore consumer-oriented garment customization. However, when public response fell below expectations, the new brand closed its physical stores in the second half of 2016. Drawing on the lessons learned from the failure of Magic Manufactory, Kutesmart launched Cotte Yolan, a proprietary made-to-measure garment brand designed by founder Daili Zhang with an eye on handing over the reins to daughter Yunlan Zhang. To ensure a successful succession, Daili, who was about to retire, formulated Cotte Yolan's own governance framework and carried out a range of organizational changes. He believed that with this governance system, companies in other industries could also transform to customization and succeed in succession. Looking ahead, father and daughter had different views regarding the future position of Cotte Yolan: should it be a fashion brand, a made-to-measure garment supplier, or a project to promote the transformation and upgrade among traditional companies? In addition, would Cotte Yolan's governance framework prove crucial for implementing Yunlan's C2M strategy and leading the company into the future?
This case follows the development of Daddy Lab, a Chinese social enterprise founded in 2015 by Wenfeng Wei. With extensive experience in product safety testing, Wei started Daddy Lab to tackle the social problem of poor-quality and hazardous consumer products used by children and their families in China. By identifying, testing, and reporting such products to the public via social media, Wei became an internet celebrity. Nicknamed "Daddy Wei," he racked up millions of followers on China's most popular social media platform, WeChat. In 2018, Daddy Lab received China Gold Social Enterprise certification from the China Charity Fair. That same year, Daddy Lab generated average monthly revenue of approximately ¥5 million by selling high-quality, non-hazardous products online. As Daddy Lab continued to grow and tackle its social mission, it faced numerous challenges. Social entrepreneur Wei realized that he faced the dilemma of trying to make the world a safer place for children and their families while making a profit to sustain this purpose. Wei had established a model to make profits through Daddy Lab's dual roles as a "reviewer" and a "seller" but wondered whether it was appropriate for this social enterprise. As Wei considered Daddy Lab's future, the following questions kept him awake at night: Was Daddy Lab's current business model effective in achieving its social and financial goals? How could Daddy Lab better manage its dual roles as a "reviewer" and a "seller"? How could Daddy Lab become more sustainable in the future?
This case describes how Transsion Holdings ("Transsion"), a company with Chinese origins and strong advantages in the low-cost production of quality products, has used disruptive innovation to drive its many achievements in African and other emerging markets (such as India). As a startup with few resources, it was able to surpass global mobile phone brands (such as Samsung and Nokia) and take the lead position in the African mobile phone market (in terms of market share by volume). However, Transsion has been facing fierce competition in recent years. In January 2019, Xiaomi, a well-known Chinese smartphone brand, also entered the African market after gaining a firm foothold in the Indian market, and thus became a threat to Transsion's efforts to retain its lead position in Africa. In India, Transsion has to compete against Xiaomi as well as aggressive local competitors. Furthermore, due to consumption upgrading, the development of feature phones is making way for that of smartphones. How can Transsion, as the world's largest feature phone brand, expand its business in such an environment? Based on the disruptive innovation theory proposed by Dr. Clayton M. Christensen, this case will lead a discussion on why Transsion successfully entered Africa and achieved a leading position there and how Transsion should act in other emerging but competitive markets. By doing so, it aims to explore the implications of technology-based companies' growth strategy in emerging markets.
This case describes the bribery accusations and subsequent investigation of the Chinese subsidiary of a U.S. publicly listed Fortune 500 company, disguised as "Voles System". The primary purpose of the case is to illustrate the internal corporate governance challenges of developed-market multinational corporations (MNCs) operating in emerging markets. This case stands out in the management education field, as it fills a gap where there are very few teaching cases discussing the dark side of international business in emerging markets. After a brief introduction of the company's background, the case describes two anonymous internal "whistleblower" allegations that the Mainland China business unit (BU) had been bribing Chinese officials to win contracts. In response to these reports, the Legal Department conducted two investigations in late 2015 and 2016, respectively, but neither found concrete evidence of bribery, and the allegations could not be substantiated. A third report was subsequently made to the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) in April 2017. The DOJ placed Voles under formal investigation. While the investigation found that there was no concrete evidence of bribery of Chinese officials, several managers and staff of Voles's Mainland China BU had established a slush fund and related business entities to entertain senior managers of its key customers in China. The DOJ's investigation came at a great financial cost and hurt the company's reputation in the oil and gas industry. This case ends with multiple questions facing Voles and many MNCs operating in emerging markets: How did Voles fail to prevent such management malfeasance even after implementing industry best practices for corporate governance? What are some short-term measures through which Voles can address the situation in the Mainland China BU as revealed by the DOJ's investigation? What long-term measures should Voles implement to prevent such corporate governance failures from happening again?
This case describes the background to an upcoming negotiation between a Chinese social entrepreneur (Jamie Zheng) and a venture capitalist (Chris Liu). Case (A) lays out the situation from the perspective of Jamie, who is trying to attain first-round investment in order to better grow Smart Health, which was founded by Jamie. However, Jamie's purpose for the firm includes not only the pursuit of profit but also a desire to have a social impact by making life easier for the elderly. This provides a potential conflict, as Jamie's social purpose may impede the company's commitment to the pursuit of profit. After negotiating with five investors, Jamie still could not reach an agreement, especially with Smart Health's social goal being an important condition for its future development. However, Jamie is optimistic heading into this meeting with Chris, as Jamie believes Chris shares the same vision and understands the unique nature of Smart Health as a social enterprise. Case (B) presents the perspective of Chris, who, on a personal level, likes Jamie's idea of helping the elderly. However, as a traditional venture capitalist and an agent of XYZ Capital, Chris understands the importance of investing in firms based on their potential profitability. Therefore, Chris needs to ensure a sound return on investment, which includes some control over how the firm makes financial decisions in the future. Students will be asked to play the role of either Jamie or Chris and negotiate on how they can come to an agreement on the venture capital firm's potential investment in Smart Health and what degree of control the venture capital firm should have over Smart Health, in order to ensure it meets its financial obligations. They must haggle over one issue-social purpose. The key question for this negotiation is: How does one reach a deal when there is more than just a financial incentive at stake? How does one negotiate when the social purpose of the firm is among the issues at hand?
This case describes the background to an upcoming negotiation between a Chinese social entrepreneur (Jamie Zheng) and a venture capitalist (Chris Liu). Case (A) lays out the situation from the perspective of Jamie, who is trying to attain first-round investment in order to better grow Smart Health, which was founded by Jamie. However, Jamie's purpose for the firm includes not only the pursuit of profit but also a desire to have a social impact by making life easier for the elderly. This provides a potential conflict, as Jamie's social purpose may impede the company's commitment to the pursuit of profit. After negotiating with five investors, Jamie still could not reach an agreement, especially with Smart Health's social goal being an important condition for its future development. However, Jamie is optimistic heading into this meeting with Chris, as Jamie believes Chris shares the same vision and understands the unique nature of Smart Health as a social enterprise. Case (B) presents the perspective of Chris, who, on a personal level, likes Jamie's idea of helping the elderly. However, as a traditional venture capitalist and an agent of XYZ Capital, Chris understands the importance of investing in firms based on their potential profitability. Therefore, Chris needs to ensure a sound return on investment, which includes some control over how the firm makes financial decisions in the future. Students will be asked to play the role of either Jamie or Chris and negotiate on how they can come to an agreement on the venture capital firm's potential investment in Smart Health and what degree of control the venture capital firm should have over Smart Health, in order to ensure it meets its financial obligations. They must haggle over one issue-social purpose. The key question for this negotiation is: How does one reach a deal when there is more than just a financial incentive at stake? How does one negotiate when the social purpose of the firm is among the issues at hand?